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Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Posey Calls For Spending Cuts, Now Wants Pork Barrel Project

U.S. House of Representative Bill Posey (FL-R) had repeatedly called for spending cuts over the summer to balance the federal budget. In a press release dated July 30, 2011, Rep. Posey stated:

“Today I joined a bipartisan majority of my House colleagues in rejecting Senator Reid’s bill to give the Administration their requested debt ceiling increase of $2.4 trillion using questionable accounting tricks to fabricate spending cuts. This is not a serious approach to solving our debt crisis. What’s needed is a credible plan to control spending over the long-term so our children and grandchildren are not saddled with a massive debt they have no hope of ever repaying. Washington needs a Balanced Budget Amendment"

However, just yesterday Rep. Posey made statements to the press indicating that he would seek federal taxpayer money for a $34 million widening and deepening project for Port Canaveral so that it can host larger cruise ships.

Beyond the contradiction that Rep. Posey wants both federal spending cuts and a pork barrel project, the call for the use of U.S. taxpayer money to subsidize the cruise industry lacks credibility given that all major cruise lines :

1. Hold foreign ship registries to avoid paying U.S. registry fees;

2. Use foreign workers as much as possible rather than American worker; and

3. Use off-shore corporations to avoid paying U.S. corporate income tax.

In other words, Rep. Bill Posey seeks to use U.S. taxpayer money to create jobs for foreign workers and subsidize an industry notorious for avoiding U.S. corporate tax.